Upper division; the Pope prompted by the Devil. Lower
division; Godfrey lying on his face in a ditch, his sword passed
through his body. Leg. r o m e s r e v e n g e o r s r . e d m v n d b e r y
GODFREY MVRTHERED IN THE POPES SLAVGHTERHOVS.
No reverse.
2-85. Med. Hist. xxxv. 6. Evelyn, 174.
MB. lead. Very rare.
Rude design and workmanship. There are in the British
Museum two specimens, one in relief, the other incuse. This
piece displays the popular belief respecting the murder of Sir
Edmundbury (more properly Sir Edmund Berry) Godfrey, who
as a magistrate was active in counteracting the schemes of the
papal party, in revenge for which the Pope at the instigation of
the Devil is represented as contriving his death.
The following deposition of Prance, whether true or false,
was believed at the time, and is the best explanation which
can be given of the various scenes represented on this and
the following medals. Girald, Kelly, Green, Berry, Hill, and
Prance, with the approbation of some others, after several consultations,
had resolved to murder Sir Edmundbury Godfrey,
as being a bitter persecutor of the Catholics, an active discoverer
of their designs, and a particular enemy to the Queen’s servants.
Thus determined, on Saturday, the 12 of October, Hill went to
Sir Edmundbury Godfrey’s house in the morning, and talked
with him in private. Then taking his leave, he went to Girald
and Green, and, with them, stayed hard by, waiting for the
gentleman’s coming out, which he did about ten or eleven,
all alone, as usual. They dogged him to several places till
about six or seven in the evening, when Green went to Prance’s
house and told him, they had set him near St. Clement’s and
that Prance must make all haste to the Watergate at Somerset
House, where he should find Kelly and Berry, which he did,
and they three waited there till about nine o’clock; when of a
sudden Hill came running and said, “ He was coming, and
they must pretend a quarrel, and he would fetch him in.”
While Kelly and Berry were in a seeming scuffle, Hill, at the
gate, stopped Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and entreated him for
God’s sake to come in, for two men were a-quarrelling and he
was afraid there would be bloodshed. The gentleman refused
at first to trouble himself, but, being a magistrate, did at last
consent, and Hill entered the gate first, to show him the
persons, and after them followed Girald and Green; while
Prance watched the Watergate, and Berry was to secure the
passage by the chapel. But first he and Kelly, the pretended
combatants, stood about the end of the rail by the Queen’s
stable, and as Sir Edmundbury went down towards them,
Green suddenly threw a twisted handkerchief about his neck,
and immediately all four pulled him down and strangled him,
so as he could make no noise; after which they drew him
behind the rail, and gave him some violent punches on the
breast with their knees, and Green with all his force wrung his
neck almost round. Prance and Berry being come to them,
when he was quite dead, they all helped to carry the body into
Dr. Goddin’s lodgings, where Hill lived, and then they brought
it up five or six steps into a little room on the right hand, and
there left it that night and Sunday all day and night. On
Monday night Hill and some others removed him into a room
in the upper court of Somerset House, where Prance was
shown the body by the light of a dark lanthorn, and where
Bedloe swore he saw Prance. On Tuesday night they carried
the body to another room in the long entry, over against
Dr. Goddin’s lodgings ; and on Wednesday night they removed
it to the little room where it was first laid. That same evening,
after a serious consultation, Girald and Kelly advised that the
safest and best way was to carry him out into the fields, and
leave him run through with his own sword, that he might be
supposed to have murdered himself, and therefore his money
and other things were all to be left with him. This being
well approved of, they resolved to carry him out that night,
and accordingly Hill procured a sedan or chair into which
they put the body about twelve o’clock. Berry, who was the
porter at the upper court gate, having invited the sentinels into
his house, opened the gate, and Prance and Girald carried out
the sedan. Thus, sometimes they two, and sometimes Kelly
and Green, carried it up towards Soho fields, hard by the
Grecian Church, and then Hill attending with a horse, they